Community Coaching and Development, Equity and Sport in the UK - Case Study Example

Community Coaching and Development Introduction That community sport and its related activities such as community coaching play a pivotal role in meeting broader socio-economic and political objectives, is a matter that is beyond gainsay. Although artifacts and material cultures show vestiges of community sport in China as early as 2,000 BC, yet ever since the adoption of sports competition, sports has become a carrier for conveying ideals such as effective governance, amelioration of the quality of human life, social emancipation, a healthy nation, a vibrant economy, peaceful social intercourse and gender balance and youth empowerment. In itself, community sport may be seen as competitive physical activity which through communally organized, arranged or causal participation, aims at consolidating and improving physical and mental abilities and providing participants with entertainment. As opposed to conventional sports activities which are marked with less collective involvement and the greater emphasis on winning the game, community sport is more pervasive in participation by members of the society, has a more global mien, and is closely associated with higher ideals such as civil liberty, democracy, justice and improving the quality of human life. Because of this, community sports may also include swimming, football, American football, javelin throwing, athletics, jousting, motorised sports, cycling, wrestling, martial arts, boxing, and board games such as chess and droughts. In the UK, community sports has tremendously helped the government improve social issues such as building the economy, making governance easier, fostering balanced gender relations and furthering educational values, as shall be seen in this discussion, forthwith. It is nonetheless important to note that community sports need not necessarily take on a local scope to qualify as one, but can also take on an international outlook. Community Sports and the Economy The economic impacts of community sport over the last 5 decades cannot be gainsaid. The National Department of Sport and Recreation White Paper (NDSRWP)1998 notes that community sport has in the last 50 years stimulated economic progress through its physical activities which in turn have positively impacted health, and thereby, ultimately heightening productivity, nationally. Likewise, NDSRWP notes that community sport has through the entrenchment of sound health and physical fitness, significantly abated absenteeism at the workplace by 25%, over the last 5 years. This has ultimately increased the observation of 5-days-per-week work schedule. At the same time, that (community) sports is one of the best paying occupations, is a matter that is well underscored by the huge emoluments that sportspersons receive. With these emoluments and awards, sportspersons have not only been able to improve the quality of their lives, but to also engage in philanthropy, as a way of empowering the underprivileged to gain sustainable access to public goods and social services such as education, healthcare services and social security (Sport England, 1997, 3). Community sports also involve the input of other resources (human resources, infrastructure, security, transport and the provision of essential goods and services such as food and shelter) and logistics. This need necessitates trade and outsourcing, and thereby triggering commercial exchanges and employment opportunities, NDSRWP is poignant that in itself, sports contribute to 1.9% of United Kingdom’s GDP annually. It is beyond controversy that the input of community sports has made significant input in the UK’s economy, if these gains are compounded to include the last 5 decades. Community Sport and Education Robinson (2004, 12) and Collins and Kay (2002, 52) explain that community sport has played an important role in furthering community education. Over the last 50 years, community sport has propounded education both at the micro and macro level. At the micro level, community sport entails physical education, fitness and games which always go hand-in-hand with healthy living, healthy dietary habits and hygiene. All these factors have proven to be important components in successful learning endeavours since they increase alertness and heighten concentration among children. Thus, community sport directly facilitates classroom learning and concentration (Sport England, 2005, 2). According to Social Exclusion Unit (1998, 13), at the macro level, communal sports have organs that have for the last 5 decades steered different projects to help participants achieve their goals such as education. The Norwich City Community Sports Foundation (CSF) serves as an express example of these organizations, given that CSF has over 50,000 members which CSF helps attain their goals through sportsmanship. Among these members are the disabled, the disadvantaged in the society and the talented. Precisely, since 1995, CSF has worked with thousands of children in 70% of schools in Norfolk and north Norfolk. Behind CSF’s commitment to charity is the firm conviction in the ideal that children are entitled to access to quality education. Thus, for 15 years, CSF has facilitated learning by providing multi-skills training, Schools Sports Programmes which are meant to cover teachers’ PPA, facilitating school fundraising activities, supporting day visits, sports activities for children with physical and learning disabilities and Competitive Edge Clubs. The Competitive Edge Clubs are for helping identify exceptionally gifted and talented children, academically and in sports (Sport England, 1999, 1, 2). Equity and Sport In another wavelength, there has come to exist, a strong connection between sport and equity, following the popularisation of community sport in the last 50 years. This value, community sport has to an extent achieved through the involvement and input of the sports and social caucuses such as Sports England and the previously mentioned CSF. These caucuses aim at supplementing the government’s efforts in the provision of social services or public goods. Particularly, Sports England attempts to supplement the meagre resources of students so that they can access quality education. Particularly, Sports England has helped sponsor university education by funding 40 projects in 49 universities. It is for this same cause that City Community Sports Foundation has over the past 3 years invested over 8 million pounds as part of the National Lottery funding to help active universities see their programmes through. This same organisation has also continuously extended grants and bursaries to students in elementary schools. Since April 2010, Sports England has supported more than 2,500 sports activities and projects which extend grants to bright students (CSF 2012, 1). The culture above shows that organs involved in community sport recognise the disparity between the haves and have-nots, and therefore try to cushion the disadvantaged children from low income earning families from the pitfalls that characterise the capitalist nature of education. As is explained by Sports England (2012, 1), the aspect of equity is herein held by concerned organisations such as Sports England using communal sports to accrue proceeds therefrom, and designating only the underprivileged and the disabled to benefit from these accruals. All these efforts have been being concerted for the last 5 decades, so that the underprivileged and the disabled are able to lay life’s foundation for themselves (Sport England. 2004, 1, 2). Community Sports and Social Emancipation Coalter (2007, 75) argues that the social benefits of sport have been far reaching and of indispensible importance. As the human society comes together to participate in sports, the meeting turns into a social intercourse where social challenges are collectively confronted. The veracity of this is also underscored by the fact that community sports brings readily with it, the “we feeling” among all the participants, their nationality, race, religion and creed, notwithstanding. Some of the areas in which community sport has been seen to herald positive social change include gender relations and youth representation. David (2005, 20) and Nichols (2004, 180) observe that it is interesting that the world over, female participation in sports is rising alongside the promotion of the value of sports in child development. Women have displayed to the world, their ability to lead in different spheres of institutions by participating excellently in sports. Likewise, Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA) (2012, 1) divulges that the emergence of successful women such as Cathy Freeman, Rebecca Adlington, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Kelly Holmes in sports (especially in areas which were initially considered male domains) has solidified the resolve of other women to excel in the pursuit of happiness and self-actualisation. In sports, gender gap in sports participation has also been studied, analysed and compared with trends in the corporate sector. For instance, it is being pointed out that only between 1973 and 1974, gender balance in sports accelerated by 32%. At the same time, community sports has through the years presented participants with avenues for socialisation, formation of peer relations, fun and athletic scholarships. It is also through sports that education and antidrug activists find a meaningful channel for expanding the space for educational support and the war on drugs and substance abuse. Particularly, the United Kingdom Athletics Association successfully uses athletics participation to further the war on drugs and to nurture young talent, especially women, so as to boost female participation in sports (UKA, 2012, 1). Collins (2004, 730) explains that the role that community sport has continued in inculcating positive health and social behaviour cannot also be discounted. As a matter of fact, the credibility of this standpoint is underscored by the fact that sports, health and social behaviour go hand-in-glove. The impetus behind sports is health since people chiefly train and engage in sports for physical fitness. Likewise, sound health cannot be attained in the absence of proper social behaviour and games (or physical fitness). For instance, engaging in sports activities bequeaths the body with proper blood circulation, proper pulse rate, a stronger heart, effective supply of the brain with blood, proper bodily posture, alertness and proper dietary appetite and culture. Community Sport and Governance One way in which community sport has improved governance over the last 50 years is through the abatement of crime. Simply, community sport provides the UK and the general population with something to do, and thereby ruling out the lawlessness which comes with idleness. At the same time, sports inculcate a positive attitude on participants and thereby bequeathing them with proper self-esteem. There is general acceptance of the rationale that a good sense of self-esteem is less amenable to crime, than low self-esteem. Conversely, the government has also had to work with both the corporate sector and the private sector to manage sports. This teamwork has not only helped in ensuring effective management of sports but also in commercialising and popularising sports. Sports in turn provide the government with revenue through arrangements such as taxation, investment-attraction and foreign exchange. Green (2005, 11) Hoy, Nicholson and Houlihan (2010, 22) postulate that the issue above also exemplifies the manner in which community sport has been used in the last 50 years by the government. Specifically, community sports competition has played a pivotal role in entrenching nationalism, especially during international sports competition. During such instances, as national teams compete against each other, the “we feeling” among members of a given country becomes easily palpable and more substantive. Indeed, a player winning a sports tournament is not said to have won, but his country. Without nationalism, there can be no effective governing of any country since a country bereft of it is bound to constantly contend with treason, absence of patriotism, sectarianism and sectarian violence (Waddinton and Smith, 2004, 284; and Houlihan and White, 2002, 61). Sports and Healthy Living It is against the backdrop of the above that sports activities are always accompanied with services of medical practitioners. Every sportsperson must have a medical instructor and all sports competitions must have several medical practitioners to dispense first aid for any eventuality. Likewise, over the last 5 decades, community sporting heavily draws from responsible social behaviour such as healthy dietary observation, eschewing drugs abuse and substance reliance and the assumption of corporate social responsibility. This is to mean that there is one-to-one correlation between sports and healthy living, to the extent that any society that respects and heavily participates in community sports activities is always bound to be healthy. Sports and Role Modeling Conversely, sports and community sports activities have played a crucial role in creating role models, mostly in the persons of coaches and trainers. It is not fortuitous that every successful sportsman and sportswoman always attributes his or her success to trainers. This is because; trainers inculcate the right, victorious and relentless attitude into the sportsperson. The flipside of this is that a sportsman nurtured under the guidance of an ineffective trainer will enter into a sport tournament or competition with an inferiority complex. An athlete carrying an inferiority complex is already poised for defeat, no matter how physically fit he may be, for instance (Gratton and Henry, 2001, 19 and Eady, 1993, 16). Besides, the trainer guides the sportsperson into the right diet and dietary lifestyle. According to Burgess (2003, 14), the trainer also guides the sportsperson in the right conduct, to the point that the sportsperson is able to victoriously overcome inherent and insidious threats such as addictions, indiscipline and false sense of confidence. The need to impart proper mental and behavioural predisposition on the sportsperson is necessitated by the fact that a sportsperson ceases to be a mere individual and becomes a brand immediately the sportsperson becomes a national success. In fact, in international sports competition, the sportsperson becomes a national symbol (Collins, 2006, 44). That the role that the trainer discharges is instrumental is underscored by them providing the sportsperson with appropriate injury and physical harm prevention guidelines. Coaches and trainers also prove the sportsperson with impromptu crises management, in case of severe injuries (DCMS 2002, 1 and DCMS 2000, 2). It is also true that the indispensible role of community sports is also evident in the manner in which Commonwealth Games have helped the British Empire consolidate its political hegemony. As a multisport event, the Commonwealth Games are held every years internationally and is overseen by the Commonwealth Games Federation. Although New Zealand, Scotland, Canada, Australia, England and Wales are the only members of the commonwealth that have consistently attended the Commonwealth Games, yet 71 nations participate in the games as part of the Commonwealth and Crown dependencies and British overseas territories (Hylton, Bramham, Jackson and Nesti (2001, 61). As these games are rotated among member states, Commonwealth Games equally seek to incorporate newer states as members. For instance, the newest republic, South Sudan will be participating in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. These Commonwealth Games help solidify the bond between Britain and members of the Commonwealth. Britain on the other end is able to extend its political and socioeconomic interests in, and through these member states. For instance, nearly 65% of the commonwealth countries follow Westminster democracy model, just as Britain. The UK is therefore able to benefit easily when relating with other democracies which have strong parliamentary systems, compared to volatile fledgeling, democracies. Conclusion The foregoing clearly shows that community sports play an indispensible role in bringing about socioeconomic and political ameliorations in the UK. It is clear that the gains of community sports are pervasive, touching on all spheres of life including healthy living and dietary lifestyles, sustainable economic growth and entrepreneurship, political stability, increased importance in the role of role models, positive social change and gender and youth empowerment. Other governments should take the cue from the UK and start seriously considering sports, not as a peripheral function that expends the government’s revenue, but as a formidable tool for inculcating higher and admirable ideals such as social cohesion, reasonable socialisation and acculturation, egalitarianism, a healthy nation (potent manpower) and political tolerance. References Burgess, S. 2003. Planning for sport. Leeds, Coachwise. CIMSPA. 2012. Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity. Retrieved From: http://www.cimspa.co.uk/ Collins, M. 2004. “Sport and Physical Activity and Social Exclusion.” Journal of Sport Science, 727 – 740. CSF. 2012. Community Sports: Achieving Your Goals. Retrieved From: http://www.communitysportsfoundation.org.uk/schools/ Coalter, F. 2007. A Wider Social Role for Sport. London, Routledge. Collins, M. & Kay, T. 2002. Sport and Social Exclusion. London, Routledge. Collins, M. 2006. Examining Sports Development. 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Retrieved From: http://www.uka.org.uk/media/news/november-2012/08-11-12-ennis-iaaf-athlete-oty/ Waddinton, I. & Smith, A. 2004. “Using Sport in the Community schemes to tackle crime and drug use among young people: some policy issues and problems.” European Physical Education Review 11, 3: 279 – 298. Read More